27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays (25 page)

C
ORNELIA
(
fiercely
):
You’re speaking into the phone!

G
RACE
(
into phone
): Hello? Oh, yes, she’s here. It’s Esmeralda Hawkins. (
Cornelia snatches the phone.
)

C
ORNELIA:
What is it, Esmeralda? What are you saying, is the room full of women? Such a babble of voices! What are you trying to tell me? Have they held the election already? What, what, what? Oh, this is maddening! I can’t hear a word that you’re saying, it sounds like the Fourth of July, a great celebration! Ha, ha, now try once more with your mouth closer to the phone! What, what? Would I be willing to what? You can’t be serious! Are you out of your mind? (
She speaks to Grace in a panicky voice.
)
She wants to know if I would be willing to serve as
vice
-Regent! (
into phone
)
Esmeralda! Will you listen to me? What’s going on? Are there some fresh defections? How does it look? Why did you call me again before the vote? Louder, please speak lounder, and cup your mouth to the phone in case they’re eavesdropping! Who asked if I would accept the vice-regency, dear? Oh, Mrs. Colby, of course!—that treacherous witch!—
Esmeralda!!
Listen! I—WILL ACCEPT—NO OFFICE—EXCEPT—THE HIGHEST! Did you understand that? I—WILL ACCEPT NO OFFICE EXCEPT—
ESMERALDA!
(
She drops phone into its cradle.
)

G
RACE:
Have they held the election?

C
ORNELIA
(
dazed
):
What?—No, there’s a five-minute recess before the election begins . . .

G
RACE:
Things are not going well?

C
ORNELIA: “
Would you accept the vice-Regency,” she asked me, “if for some reason they don’t elect you Regent?"— Then she hung up as if somebody had snatched the phone away from her, or the house had—caught fire!

G
RACE
: You shouted so I think she must have been frightened.

C
ORNELIA:
Whom can you trust in this world, whom can you ever rely on?

G
RACE:
I think perhaps you should have gone to the meeting.

C
ORNELIA:
I think my not being there is much more pointed.

G
RACE:
(
rising again
)
May I be excused, now?

C
ORNELIA:
No
!
Stay here!

G
RACE:
If that is just a request, I—

C
ORNELIA:
That’s an order! (
Grace sits down and closes her eyes.
)
When you first came to this house—do you know I didn’t expect you?

G
RACE:
Oh, but, Cornelia, you’d invited me here.

C
ORNELIA:
We hardly knew each other.

G
RACE:
We’d met the summer before when Ralph was—

C
ORNELIA:
Living! Yes, we met at Sewanee where he was a summer instructor.

G
RACE:
He was already ill.

C
ORNELIA:
I thought what a pity that lovely, delicate girl hasn’t found someone she could lean on, who could protect her! And two months later I heard through Clarabelle Drake that he was dead . . .

G
RACE:
You wrote me such a sweet letter, saying how lonely you were since the loss of your mother and urging me to rest here till the shock was over. You seemed to understand how badly I needed to withdraw for a while from—old associations. I hesitated to come. I didn’t until you wrote
me a second letter . . .

C
ORNELIA:
After I received yours. You wanted urging.

G
RACE:
I wanted to be quite sure I was really wanted! I only came intending to stay a few weeks. I was so afraid that I would outstay my welcome!

C
ORNELIA:
How blind of you not to see how desperately I wanted to keep you here forever!

G
RACE:
Oh, I did see that you—(
The phone rings.
)
Miss Scott’s residence!—Yes, she’s here.

C
ORNELIA:
(
She snatches it up finally.
)
Cornelia Scott speaking! Oh. It’s you, Esmeralda! Well, how did it come out?—
I
don’t believe you! I simply don’t believe you . . .
(
Grace sits down quietly at the table.
)
—
MRS. HORNSBY ELECTED? Well, there’s a dark horse for you! Less than a year in the chapter . . . Did you—nominate—
me?—
Oh—I see! But I told you to withdraw my name if—No, no, no, don’t explain, it doesn’t matter, I have too much already. You know I am going into the Daughters of the Barons of Runymede! Yes, it’s been established, I have a direct line to the Earl of—No, it’s been straightened out, a clear line is established, and then of course I am also eligible for the Colonial Dames and for the Huguenot Society, and what with all my other activities and so forth, why, I couldn’t
possibly
have taken it on if they’d—
wanted. . . .
Of course I’m going to resign from the local chapter! Oh, yes, I am! My secretary is sitting right here by me. She has her pencil, her notebook! I’m going to dictate my letter of resignation from the local chapter the moment that I hang up on this conversation. Oh, no, no, no, I’m not mad, not outraged, at all. I’m just a little—ha ha!—a little—amused . . .
MRS. HORNSBY?
Nothing succeeds like mediocrity, does it? Thanks and goodbye, Esmeralda. (
She hangs up, stunned. Grace rises.
)

G
RACE:
Notebook and pencil?

C
ORNELIA:
Yes. Notebook and pencil . . . I have to—dictate a letter . . . (
Grace leaves the table. Just at the edge of the lighted area, she turns to glance at Cornelia’s rigid shoulders and a slight, equivocal smile appears momentarily on her face; not quite malicious but not really sympathetic. Then she crosses out of the light. A moment later her voice comes from the outer dark.
)

G
RACE:
What lovely roses! One for every year!

CURTAIN

Copyright 1945 by Tennessee Williams

Copyright 1953 by Tennessee Williams

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper,
magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the Publisher.

Caution: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that all of these
plays are fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America,
the British Empire, including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the
Copyright Union, and are subject to a royalty. All rights, including professional,
amateur, motion-picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading,
radio-broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are
strictly reserved. For permission to produce any of these plays, address all
inquiries to the author’s representative, Tom Erhardt, Casarotto Ramsey Ltd.,
National House, 60-66 Wardour Street, London W1V 311P, England.

Amateur Acting Rights

The amateur acting rights of the plays in this volume are controlled
exclusively by The Dramatists Play Service Inc., 440 Park Ave. S., New York, N. Y.
10016, without whose permission in writing no amateur performances of them may be
made.

Library of Congress Catalog card number: 50-20932

eISBN: 978-0-8112-2080-4

First published as ND Paperbook 217 in 1966

Published simultaneously in Canada by

Penguin Books Canada Limited.

New Directions books are
published for James Laughlin

by New Directions Publishing
Corporation,

80 Eighth Avenue, New York
10011.

By TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

PLAYS

Baby Doll & Tiger Tail

Camino Real

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Clothes for a Slimmer Hotel

Dragon Country

The Glass Menagerie

A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur

The Red Devil Battery Sign

Small Craft Warnings

Stopped Rocking and Other Screenplays

A Streetcar Named Desire

Sweet Bird of Youth

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME I

Battle of Angels, A Streetcar Named Desire. The Glass Menagerie

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME II

The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo, Camino Real

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME III

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME IV

Sweet Bird of Youth, Period of Adjustment, The Night of the Iguana

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME V

The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, Kingdom of Earth
(
The Seven Descents of Myrtle
)
, Small Craft Warnings, The Two-Character Play

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME VI

27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Short Plays

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME VII

In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel and Other Plays

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME VIII

Vieux Carré, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Clothes for a Summer Hotel, The Red Devil Battery Sign

27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays

The Two-Character Play

Vieux Carré

POETRY

Androgyne, Mon Amour

In the Winter of Cities

PROSE

Collected Stories

Hard Candy and Other Stories

One Arm and Other Stories

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

Where I Live: Selected Essays